The county’s parks and recreation department has lost a shot at
nabbing 5,600 acres of South County land at rock bottom prices.
Gilroy – The county’s parks and recreation department has lost a shot at nabbing 5,600 acres of South County land at rock bottom prices.
On June 7, a $1.2 million check arrived at the county tax collector to clear up a six-year tab of unpaid taxes for Sargent Ranch, thousands of acres of rolling hills just south of Gilroy. Had the taxes not been paid by Thursday, the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department would have proceeded with efforts to acquire the land for the price of the tax bill.
“Most parcels of any kind of value are redeemed here in this county,” said County Tax Collector Martha Williams. “I think I would have expected that they would get paid.”
Williams would not disclose who wrote the check for $1,200,544.10, but said that the fee included rolling penalties of 10 percent (levied twice a year) and an 18 percent interest rate on the tax amount.
Wayne Pierce, a San Diego developer and managing partner of Sargent Ranch LLC, the investment company that holds title to the land, did not return a request for comment by press time.
Pierce has struggled over the years to develop the land. County supervisors spurned his efforts in the late ’90s to bring golf courses and hillside homes to the property. More recently, he has forged a pact with one of two rival factions within the Amah Mutsun Indian Tribe. An agreement Pierce forged with the tribe would allow him to develop 3,000 acres outside the control of county regulators, as long as the tribe gains federal recognition and brings the land under tribal sovereignty. That process could last a decade or more.
Land records show that Pierce and Sargent Ranch LLC have borrowed at least $35 million worth against the property.
